Busy Tech Exec Loses 20 lbs in 100-Day Fat Loss Challenge! Here's How He Did It - 117

Coach Brian Parana (0:7.335) Welcome back to Coach Brian here with Remember for Health, and I'm excited to bring a story to you. This is Chris. He's a tech exec. He is time-bound, schedule tight guy. He lives in Ohio, his wife, kids, and just doing his thing, right? Just works, takes care of his family. He stays in shape too, but he started to the the middle age creep around the waistline and he realized I don't. Coach Brian Parana (0:35.869) really want to carry this out when I'm fifty and sixty. Just wanna live a happy, healthy lifestyle, take my shirt off, feel comfortable and things like that. So we're gonna introduce Chris here and jump into it. Chris, what were some of the biggest accomplishments that we've done here in the last hundred days in the Call to Rise program? Chris (0:52.076) Hey Brian. Thank well, thank you for having me, Brian. And you know, when you think about accomplishments, it's easy to go to the scale, it's easy to go to the numbers, it's easy to go to the measurable results. I'll start there just, you know, for your audience and those that are listening. I did lose twenty pounds in a hundred days, which I'm proud of. it was it was so kind of as advertised, that that's been your moniker. I was able to get there. And you know, it wasn't one of those things that I was constantly Coach Brian Parana (1:11.089) That's the goal. Chris (1:22.090) stepping on the scale and looking for, you know, the daily loss or whatever. Coach Brian Parana (1:25.987) Right, right, right. What was I'm down point three, I'm down point six, right? Every yeah. Chris (1:30.191) Exactly. So I I was able to I was able to get the the twenty and and more importantly, the I felt like the twenty came from the right place. Like and we've talked about this, but I've had to re jigger some of my belts because I've gotten to the last hole and those are no longer sufficient to keep my pants up. So that that was more of a road hack which we could talk a little bit more about. But I would say the you know the weight loss and then the the Coach Brian Parana (1:48.691) Yeah. Chris (1:59.437) You know, obviously it coming around the middle and and as you promote quite frequently is the fat loss. So that component did work pretty well. And then I would say the last thing accomplishment wise, one of the things I was looking to get out of this were repeatable habits and having just consistency, which you know, the the the pillars of this program helped allow. Coach Brian Parana (2:23.504) Yeah, definitely. You and another gentleman, Mike, he's episode one thirteen of Driven for Health Podcast. He ended up losing seventy ten seventeen pounds and twelve percent body fat. And it was such a a big number. And that's the goal is when we're losing weight, we want to lose fat. So that you maintain the muscle mass that you have and and you have some on you. We just need to peel away some of the the fat that's been slowly accumulating over time. So to tell me a little bit about Coach Brian Parana (2:50.770) Who you are, what you got going on in your day to day life. I know that you travel a lot. That was a big initial point that we had to talk about and and set some better guidelines and rules around so that you could be successful with that. Chris (3:4.002) Yeah. Well, Brian, I I I think probably in this facet of my life, like obviously job and your career is a big part of your identity. As you mentioned, I work for a tech company. And when I joined the company, I was, I think, around employee 150. And we've since grown to around fifteen hundred employees. And so largely my existence at this company has been part of the build team as we're trying to go to market and we're trying to acquire new customers and Chris (3:34.103) all the things that come from being in a startup role, that's largely what I've been doing over the last five years. And so that's that's a bit about me. I've been married to my wife, Jamie, for gosh, it'll be 27 years in November. And our oldest son just graduated from university to be unnamed. And we also have two others that are one's in college and another one's in high school. Coach Brian Parana (4:4.209) Yeah, that's that's awesome. So you're literally in the thick of life right now with all the things, the juggle, the the schedule is real and there's constant responsibilities any which way you look and people Yeah, exactly. Yeah, if yeah, yeah. Chris (4:4.322) So yeah. Chris (4:10.232) We are in the thick of fighting. Got it. Chris (4:16.822) Aging parents two to go on top of that. Chris (4:21.932) in the aging parent demographics, so there's a lot of high touch involved with with your parents and depending on what their circumstances are in life, that could be a a pretty big lift as well. So yeah. Coach Brian Parana (4:29.202) Right. Coach Brian Parana (4:34.484) Yeah. Yeah. Forty to sixty is a a grind time and you end up your personal identity falls to the backside because of the constant need for attention from all these other areas. And and that's yeah, I'm feeling it more so now than ever in my forties. Now I'm forty-three. Coach Brian Parana (4:53.626) Now, what were some of the results, speaking beyond just the the physical way, but what were the say the travel, the the day to day habits, the repetitive not repetitive in a bad way because I didn't tell you to eat the same things on a day to day basis, but the the the repetitive sequences of how you decided to the foods that you ate, the portions you chose, all that type of stuff. Chris (5:16.760) Yeah. Well, so Brian, I know there's a lot of a lot of the clients that you work with, they they go cannonball straight into the food. You're a you're a peddler of vegetables. There's no secret to that. And it's for cause, like they're good for you and they're you know, and they they they're healthy and you don't you don't consume the number of calories that you would, but you're full. So it's it's it's a playbook that works, but it's one that you know, again, it's it Chris (5:45.155) I'm not a huge vegetable guy. There's there's some that I do like and that I that I'll routinely eat. But what I had to do is was look at certain meals in certain parts of the day when you want to enjoy your meal and your food. And and it's one of those things that for me it was kind of decoupling that in a few different meals of the day, breakfast. I don't need to have some leisurely enjoyment type of meal. I mean, you could still enjoy the foods of you. Yeah. Coach Brian Parana (6:12.560) Wake up and have a cup of coffee and and sit out and eat something, right? Don't need that. Chris (6:16.426) Exactly. So what what worked for me was taking specific meals throughout the day. Like normally for me, if I'm not on the road, it would have been breakfast and lunch and just having repeatable the same things over and over again. And it's it's also to where yeah, you can mix in a little bit of variety, but for me it was more or less of I need to eat lunch, let me get through it and let me get back to my day. And Coach Brian Parana (6:40.432) Right. Right. And for that extending there, it's decision fatigue. It's for you it's one less decision and choice. We already said this is a good combination of food that's gonna move our us toward our goals. Okay, rinse and repeat. Chris (6:54.371) Yes. Coach Brian Parana (6:55.684) Okay, I'll worry about the more challenging client meals. The the let's let's squeeze in a dinner date with the wipe or the kids are gonna they want pizza tonight. How do I benagle that? So we can have some say home based meals that are keep you on track and you can worry about the other things later. Chris (7:1.047) Right. Chris (7:15.838) And not only that, Brian, but like there's a t one of the things you brought up too in in just our not only our one on ones, our group calls, and then I've heard you talk about this on different podcasts, is like, what's your playbook when things don't necessarily go in a predictable fashion, right? And for me that was being on the road. And what I liked about just being at home when I don't travel and these repeatable meals is I find myself using those to get into a deficit. Chris (7:44.685) while also trying to hit my protein and macro targets as well. So it's one of those things that I'm not looking to say, okay, if I'm on an 1800 calorie diet for the day, I need 600 at breakfast, I need 600 at lunch, I need 600 at dinner. I'm going like 300 at breakfast, maybe 250. And, you know, getting enough to start my day, knowing that, you know, come bedtime, I'm going to have my my numbers in order. Coach Brian Parana (8:13.316) You still accomplish the goal at the end of the day. And ultimately that's the we just do basic math over here. It's just okay, these are the number that we need, and we'll just do addition all day long to get to those goals. A lot of programs will try and confuse the nutrition process and all of a sudden you're trying to trigonometry some weird stuff of, I don't need a whole food group, or at this time frame in in four weeks we're gonna do this. And then in another eight weeks after we're doing this other protocol. And that's Coach Brian Parana (8:42.950) That's definitely not it. We need a repeatable, simple and enjoyable process that you can do day in and day out. And you also go Chris (8:51.768) Well, and that's Well, and I was just gonna say, and I know we're gonna talk about this coming up, but like just the rigidity of certain programs when you maybe don't comply with some aspect of it or you you know, you slip over here and then you feel like you're a total failure. what I like about the framework here is that it's intended for the long game and it buffers in life. Coach Brian Parana (9:19.234) So I I live what I preach, as you know now. My day's super busy. It's constantly flipping upside down on me. I ended up booking two more phone calls today than I intended at the beginning of the day. So that changes what I'm gonna be doing and how I'm gonna operate and when I eat and all these things. But we have to be lean, agile in it and have this adaptability built into it. So this the BF, the moderation, balance, flexibility type approach. Coach Brian Parana (9:49.051) that can bend with you so that you are flexible and we still stay on track. It's there's so many people it's I've failed and I made a bad choice. So I'm gonna start again on Monday. Well today is Tuesday, so I guess you've got six day runway to start over. Chris (9:55.256) That's it. Chris (10:8.600) Yeah. Well and it's it's also too like the the idea of s starting and starting something new and being quote unquote in and you're you're part of now a committed program. What what I like about this program too is it doesn't feel like I'm in a program sometimes. And what I mean by that it's it's where the the habits that form and the Coach Brian Parana (10:28.154) Right. Which is by design. Chris (10:35.202) the things that you do just kind of take over second nature and you don't feel like you're even in a program and you're still getting results. you know, which which I mean, I don't know who's gonna listen to this that that might trigger a, you know a response of any kind, but it's it's for me, I you I think you nailed you hit you hit it on the head. I I deal with a bunch of decisions all day long. And Chris (11:3.320) There's certain things where I just get tapped out and I just want to I wanna behave in in the realm of that of the playbook and the f the you know the program that's been created without feeling like, hey, I'm constantly just dialed in and I have to be hyper aware of every mistake I make, or you know, even if I'm deficient or I've if I haven't had enough water by a certain part of the day. what I wanna feel like is that over the long term. Chris (11:31.916) these things all normalize and the results will stack. Coach Brian Parana (11:36.679) The the long-term biasy approach principle that I have is what we do in two weeks, we do in two months, we do in two years, so on and so forth. From the very get-go, I'm trying to collaborate with you what is the day-to-day lifestyle approach that you can manage and maintain while getting results. And hey, cool thing is we're down twenty. And when you get to the actual goal of where you want to be at, then we just start to eat just a little bit more food and or maybe have a little bit more fun, or maybe not walk so much with intention. Coach Brian Parana (12:5.834) Like you were, and you can maintain your weight and it not be any different than what we had been building and stacking for weeks on end, which is important. Let's go to the travel because a lot of guys listening in are time tight. They're constantly moving. I can't tell you how many clients I have. So Bob, what city are you in today? To give me some frame of reference and and help coach you here. Chris (12:14.178) No, I totally agree. Chris (12:33.592) Yeah, so the travel is interesting because for me it involves not only the trip itself, but oftentimes a dinner, you know, or a social event with with customers, clients, or colleagues. And so there's a few things that I try to do right off the rip. I avoid extra overnights, number one. So if I need to leave on the first flight out, I do that, you know, just unrelated to this program. That generally there's Coach Brian Parana (12:42.520) definitely. Chris (13:3.180) The fewest things that have happened during the day is why I leave I I try to choose the early flight because the crew's gonna be there, the plane's there. Yeah. Exactly. But on top of that is on my outbound flight, what I what I've been doing is I'll load up like a heavy, like a good protein shake before I leave. You know, so I'm full, I don't have any desire to stop and get anything at the airport. Coach Brian Parana (13:10.733) yeah, yeah. They'll be on time and as much as possible. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Chris (13:32.755) I can kind of go on my way, get a coffee, and then I'm off to my destination, you know, land somewhere and then get a light lunch of some kind. You know, so the the the first, you know, those first two meals like on the travel day, protein shake, light lunch, you know, probably a salad with, you know, chicken or some protein or s or something to that effect. And I'll carry some David bars with me or protein bars to be unnamed. I'll carry with me just as Chris (14:2.080) extra snacks or whatever else. Yeah, easy, convenient. one of your other podcasts, you I I you were chatting with a guy, just pack a sandwich, you know, if you you want to load it up. I've done that before. You know, so, you know, for those that there's some great content that Brian does have. And I did learn from other testimonials and interviews that he's conducted. That was one of the hacks that I pulled out was, you know, just bring a sandwich with you, put it your bag. And Coach Brian Parana (14:2.892) Easy, convenient, on the go. Coach Brian Parana (14:30.182) Yeah. Pack a sandwich, some some baby carrots and an apple, and that'll hold you over for three or four hours long enough and it'll save calories for whatever dinner's gonna be with the clients that you have to entertain. Chris (14:32.567) Excuse me. Chris (14:37.483) Yeah. Chris (14:41.079) Absolutely. Chris (14:44.270) That's right. And then at dinner it's you know, there's there's two options I go. It's either fish or I go baby petite filet and kind of go that route and not overdo it. So that's generally what I've been trying to do on the road and you know inevitably this topic does come up too is you know, what about alcohol? What about the wine at the table, that type of thing? And you know you just be moderate. Coach Brian Parana (15:8.626) Alcohol, of course. Chris (15:12.914) It's one of those things that you know, it's okay to have a glass of wine at dinner, but you don't need four glasses of wine. You don't need three glasses of wine. So it's Coach Brian Parana (15:19.436) Of course. Right. Right. And you're making a better choice with what you're eating, therefore the calories are already buffered in to be able to enjoy wine or beer in a sense. And let's be honest, you and a lot of people that are listening in have traveled so many times and done the fine dining experience that it's nothing new. You've been there, you done that, just has a different name on the door that you walk through to come in. What are they serving? A nice steak, vegetables. Chris (15:27.725) Yes. Chris (15:45.390) Yeah, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. Coach Brian Parana (15:48.651) Let's just stick with that so then you're not walking out with fifteen hundred calories of food in your belly and then you're off. Yeah. So and it makes sense. And you can even have repeatable meals. And even the way you order. That's something if you listen in, you're looking for a hack. Here's the hack is a protein double vegetable and order like you've ordered it a thousand times. Because here the cool thing in most parts, you're not paying for it anyways, so you get whatever you want. Chris (16:10.679) Yeah. Chris (16:16.866) That's right. Yeah. Well the other thing too is if anybody else is traveling, if you don't carry a water bottle to just fill up at those refilling stations in the airport, that's that's a big miss. That's an easy win to go do. And you know, just stay on track with the the water consumption. And then to your point, it also keeps you full. You know, may have to go may have to hit the restroom on the plane at some point, but that's a good trade off you know, with just Coach Brian Parana (16:16.878) In a sense. Within reason, but yeah, within a sense, so Chris (16:45.856) Staying hydrated and that sort of thing. Coach Brian Parana (16:48.908) Yeah, hydration, guys listen, a hundred ounces or more. Do we need to go over a gallon if you're like sweating a lot? Then maybe or it's you're in a hot environment, you're you're down southwest and it's dry, you probably do need more. Coach Brian Parana (17:1.540) in that situation, but you can manage it in a sense so that you don't have to spend all day in the bathroom. but most people, most guys don't drink enough. And then they confuse that hunger thirst signal and they eat instead of drink and you just put calories in your body when you actually just needed water. Now what were some of the things that you did before that y you've done trying to manage your weight? Chris (17:19.426) Absolutely. Chris (17:30.228) like in just in terms of past yeah, yeah. I mean, as far as like probably in I'm in my twenties it was it was a combination of running and meathead weightlifting. So I just stayed in shape and you know, I didn't have to worry about my my fitness as much back then, you know, it just you're still young and everything else. Coach Brian Parana (17:32.386) Yeah, pass diets and quotations or programs. Chris (17:55.929) But along the way, I've done a number of different things. Like I I I was a guy that would sign up for a race of some kind to put it on the calendar and it would let me train for it. So I've done a tough mutter in the past. I was also pretty active in boxing for a long time. And so that's a huge calorie burn, and that usually kept me in pretty good shape. and then there's probably a bunch of you on the call or on this on this out in the audience that Coach Brian Parana (18:3.667) Yeah. Yeah. Chris (18:25.240) Did P ninety X at one time or another? Coach Brian Parana (18:27.516) good old Tony Horton. Yes, definitely. Chris (18:30.370) Yeah. So I had I had my I had my stint with with good old Tony and you know, did a did a few of those. Yeah. I mean I I stayed in shape and did a was able to do a ton of pull ups, you know. but something about watching a video every time you wanted to work out was not something that Coach Brian Parana (18:37.020) Yeah. He did a good job. Yeah. Coach Brian Parana (18:49.412) Yeah. The the play button became the biggest challenge for a lot of people. Hit that play button. Or secondly it was hearing the redundancy of his jokes. They they wore out after a while. Chris (18:54.070) That's right. Chris (18:59.768) yeah. Yeah. The German That's it, man. You could memorize the entire the entire routine, so but Yeah. Coach Brian Parana (19:8.356) Yeah, yeah. They were great. Tony's Tony's a an all-star in my book for what the the amount of impact that he's had with with people and and helping people. So that's awesome. That's awesome. Now what were some of the motivations to reach some of these these improved health goals for you? Chris (19:13.176) Yeah. Chris (19:29.644) Yeah, there's a few and and not to go morbid, but Brian, like in my industry, like recently I've seen a rat a rash of obituaries on LinkedIn on guys that are in sales or in in tech that are roughly my age. And it's something that, you know, as I'm I'm reaching the big five that I wanna I wanna preserve the the years that I have. Coach Brian Parana (19:46.635) Stress and Coach Brian Parana (19:58.322) Quality and length. Chris (20:0.015) quality and it's something that I want to be able-bodied if one day I'm a grandparent and you know I'm able to go do all yeah and and then you know be active and be healthy and and not go on meds for any reason and one other one other one other component too is I had gone to an annual physical and Coach Brian Parana (20:6.726) Yeah. It's likely with three kids. It's definitely likely, right? Chris (20:28.086) My doctor had said, You are on the cusp of hypertension and we can address this in a few different ways. We can go down the pharma route or you can go fix this. And it was something that stood with me. I don't want to go on pills for any, you know, blood pressure. Coach Brian Parana (20:34.802) Right. Coach Brian Parana (20:44.996) If you go on one people, you might be likely to go on more. That's just the generalization of how it happens. Chris (20:51.340) And so it was it was more or less of just I don't have like a a goal around completing a sporting or race related event or competing on stage or doing anything else. It's it's mainly quality of life. Coach Brian Parana (21:7.026) Right. Definitely. Definitely. So you can do fun things at the very least. Chris (21:11.852) Exactly. Be able to be able to move with with no pain and be able to you know, if I'm wanna go on vacation and walk forty thousand steps and see a city, I I I wanna be able to physically do that, not feel like you're tired after the first three hours. Coach Brian Parana (21:29.180) We did a two week European cruise and a stint in Paris last year. Literally this time we would have been probably in Paris at this point. But the cruise then six days in Paris and I averaged for those two weeks twenty-two thousand steps a day. I was just full go the whole time. And I didn't miss anything. And the amount of walking that we did over Paris, my gosh, we would go from we were at the Pantheon and then Coach Brian Parana (21:59.087) we'd walk to Notre Dame or Maman to to Eiffel Tower. We made our way to Eiffel Tower every single night, the three nights that we were there. And then we'd walk back. And it's just thousands and thousands of steps at all hours of the day. So you gotta keep up. Chris (22:14.808) Need a you need a sh need a shoe budget in the family to replace all the yeah. Coach Brian Parana (22:19.872) yeah, yeah, yeah. for us it's a croc budget with those kids. They love their crocs. So funny side note, I ran my first five K with my third son, Maxwell, Saturday. Impromptu. The older two ended up running and racing. Le Everett beat Levi, so the second beat the first by n eleven seconds. And then Maxwell all of a sudden he says, I wanna do it. Coach Brian Parana (22:44.510) And so we w he and I ran together and and we he raced his first five K. That was just pretty cool. But he did it in Crocs. That's why I was bringing up the story. He just had Crocs on. He's like, let's go. It's just so funny. man. What's one thing that made this different? obviously you're you are a obviously an intelligent Coach Brian Parana (23:10.052) you could get things done. You are on the the high end of agency is a good word, of getting things done. So why what what was it one thing that stood out or made it easier that was different for you to to be more successful and carry this well beyond our work together. Chris (23:28.300) Yeah. Well, I think you know this, Brian, but there's there's two colleagues I work with that are clients of yours, and we started talking about general things in life that happen to people in our demographic, right? The you know, you're in your forties and fifties, you're working, you're you you know, you're carrying a full load, and this topic came up and just listening to the one guy talk through. Coach Brian Parana (23:35.900) Yep. Yep. Chris (23:58.435) the playbook and what he's been able to do and and you know how mentally this program approaches it. Like that's that's been kind of the we we just touched on it, but it was one of those things where I didn't feel like it was this rigid I have to do these nineteen things every single day. And then you don't get the instant gratification of results right out of the rips. That's gonna come in weeks or months. And that's where a lot of people fall off. Chris (24:27.786) Is this constant tracking and and you know, feels like you're putting more in than you're getting out. I like that it was simple. Coach Brian Parana (24:38.735) Yeah. Just so you know, Ryan is the gentleman he's talking about. It's episode eighty-six. So you can go listen to him how he lost forty-five pounds, have two kids that are five and less. He travels a lot too. He's in the tech industry, and he really struggled for years to to get off the yo-yo thing. And then we finally were able to get him down and keep him down. So if you want to listen in, it's eighty-six. Talk about Ryan. Chris (24:38.882) Just simple. Chris (25:6.583) Nice. Coach Brian Parana (25:9.326) Now wrapping us up, take us home here. What is if you were to talk to someone listening in, maybe a prior version of yourself or before you met those two guys that day and talked, what would you tell your younger self or someone else on here that is in a similar position? I sure you take care of yourself and yeah, health is important, but it's it it's just slowly declining in a sense or the waistline is slowly expanding. Chris (25:36.665) Sure. Brian, I I I think it it it stems I'll I'll I'll speak on my behalf first and then I'll maybe address the audience here. For me, I know that in life in any given time I have room for a few big rocks. And I always thought that health and fitness had to be like this giant big rock, and it doesn't. It's something that you don't have to say, I gotta make room for this to start. Chris (26:5.558) And I'm not quite there yet. Maybe next month after this is over or that's over, I can really focus in on what I'm supposed to go do. And the the reality is is there's not a right time for anything. Coach Brian Parana (26:17.338) There's never. the all the time I've done this. And hey, guess what? Go watch the three episodes on Netflix on The Biggest Loser and see how their bubble like environment of them going to the the the ranch and working out all the time outside of their everyday life check in and see how it worked out for years later. It didn't. They gained more weight back. Chris (26:37.772) Yeah, exactly. And Brian, what and Brian, I if you recall, like in our first seven days, like out of the hundred, you kind of texted me on the side, like you're ever gonna give me any food that you're eating and report back and you know, check in on this piece. And partly I was in a place where I'm like, I don't have the time right now to make this a big rock and like fully, you know, immerse myself to where like, hey, I'm here, I'm gonna do the full hundred days. Chris (27:6.698) It was, I was really, really busy at the time when we started. Yeah, my first month or so, I think I had three or four trips like stacked. And that was one of the things like, okay, this is gonna be a challenge for me. And how am I gonna kind of recalibrate and make sure that I'm staying in control during these trips? And what I ended up realizing is that I wasn't that far off to begin with. It was just more being acutely aware of, okay, do this, don't do that. Coach Brian Parana (27:9.466) Yeah, you're traveling and yeah. Chris (27:36.236) It's not that I can't do or have or I ca have to do complete denial. And that's again, I think kind of the theme I've been talking about is you know, this denial. Coach Brian Parana (27:44.176) Not all in, but middle gear mentality. Chris (27:47.001) this denial concept is but you know, I guess for the folks out there, if you feel like you need to wait to start because of some life circumstances or I got this going or I got that going, chances are if you get started, you're gonna be better off than waiting for the exact right time because life throws curveballs pretty much every day. And you don't you don't always have this blank canvas to start your your picture with. Chris (28:16.780) You have to kind of pick up a partial and figure out how do I, you know, take this and and make it into what I want it to be. And so I would say that there's never a right time. if if you're in it for like instant results, I mean, this is a good way to get a boost and to get kind of acclimatized and and get locked in. But the the bigger thing is like just the the sticky habits, the things that, you know, just Chris (28:45.974) survive a program, you know, such as like when do I go to bed? How much water am I drinking every day? And am I moving enough to create a deficit or maintain where I'm at? And so it's just, it's just knowing like it's it's the things everybody already knows, but just being deliberate about. Coach Brian Parana (29:4.176) Yeah, I can't tell ya you you saw it. Literally everyone in the group knows what to do. They're just not doing it. And that's where Brian comes into play really well. Okay, let's figure out how to actually do it in a way that works for you. Chris (29:17.026) Yeah. Absolutely. And then, you know, it's I also find value in the community, the you know, the the team that you built, the and the brotherhood, you know, there's people at different stages with different goals, with different, you know, life circumstances. And, you know, the you get inspired by others that are just putting in the work and and doing some really cool things. Chris (29:45.561) Brian, I'll tell I'll say this like in the last hundred days, what have I done? I've had ice cream at least once. I've had, you know, wine and whiskey, I've had pizza, you know, so it's all the things that like you know, folks think that they're gonna just cut out completely and I gotta go eat kale salads every day. that was not my experience. Coach Brian Parana (30:10.018) No, we did. I I would have asked you, do you enjoy KO? And if you said yes, then okay, cool. But if you said no, why why are you doing that? Yeah, episode 53. Andy, he lost 38 pounds in the group and he barely ate any vegetables at all. I just could not figure out a way to make it happen. And it was just fine. And he'll tell you how he managed to stay full in a calorie deficit while walking. And that was a huge impact for him to just start moving more. Chris (30:13.964) Ha ha ha. Coach Brian Parana (30:39.768) And it worked for him. And he was so happy because he was able to a accomplish something that had been wearing on him for years. Chris (30:48.568) Yeah, yeah. There's no good time to start. And then I guess one other thing too is like you know this, I you know, I I routinely weight train. one thing I did pick up though is in the middle of my sets, like I have this little I have this little small section of my basement where I do all my stuff, but then in between sets, instead of scrolling on my phone, I'm just doing laps in my basement, just adding, you know, a couple thousand steps Coach Brian Parana (31:15.070) More steps. It all it all adds up, man. Uh-huh. I'm gonna take us on a journey here real quick. I'm in my barn where I work out at, but you can't really tell here, but this is my driveway. The lighting is off. But man, the amount of times I've been up and down the driveway is insane over the last ten years I've been here. I mean, if if I could wear a path in my concrete driveway, I would have. Chris (31:17.698) while waiting. Does and and so it it was just a different Coach Brian Parana (31:43.986) 'Cause I've just been up and down it so much walking and talking to people. So it all adds up. Chris (31:49.721) Yeah. It does. Yeah, and if somebody had a camera and was looking into my basement windows and they saw me walking around. Yeah, exactly. But you know, part of it Coach Brian Parana (31:56.687) Think you're crazy. I'm just glad I don't live in a a suburb suburb because my gosh, that would be bad. People would think I was crazy. Like this guy's always walking, he's talking to himself. And he's really animated. He throws his arms around all the time. It's crazy he's crazy. man. Yeah, exactly. Chris (32:6.262) Get the same look. Chris (32:10.978) Yeah, yeah, exactly. Chris (32:15.886) Yeah, it's his imaginary friends are having conversations with him. Coach Brian Parana (32:19.754) well, thanks so much for coming on here, Chris, to help inspire and motivate other people that are seemingly stuck in some capacity of improving their health, their fitness, their nutrition. And that's a huge part of it. It's very simple process that we went through, but it's just not easy. And everyone's life throws those curveballs, as we have been talking about in the day to day life, that makes it hard to swing and hit the ball. But we're not trying to swing for the fences with the all or nothing. Coach Brian Parana (32:48.710) Type approach, we're looking for a middle gear mentality. All I need you do is hit a single, get on base, and then if we can do that every single day, we're going to drive in runs and we're gonna make real progress for real life situations, no matter what it is. It's really hard at this point in my career for someone to throw a curveball at me that I haven't already experienced. And it's like, hey, you're a unique person, but your situation is not unique. Chris (33:12.686) Yeah. Coach Brian Parana (33:17.190) to me. So let's let's let's step up to the plate, let's swing for the ball and and get on first base and keep driving in the run. So I wanna thank God Chris (33:25.390) Do you mind if I yeah, do you mind if I throw in a quick plug for you and those that may not those that may not be familiar with coaching and how this all works? but what I'll say, you know, to the audience, anybody listening out there, what I really appreciated about you, Brian, is like you didn't approach this in a one size fits all type of way. You're, you know, very human-centric. So you get to know people and what their circumstances are, what makes them tick, what their goals and motivations are. And Coach Brian Parana (33:28.804) Yeah. appreciate it, yeah. Coach Brian Parana (33:35.472) Yeah, please. Chris (33:55.289) Just that that human psychology element of what you're doing, I I feel like is also a benefit to this program where it's not this. I go to a class, here's what you do, then you go back, and then you're kind of left to yourself. It's more of you know, I'm in this with you, this is a process, this is a a journey, this is not a scale driven exercise. This is more of a, you know, a a habits and wellness type of you know, playbook. So Chris (34:25.902) you know, for those that have never worked with a coach, Brian has been amazing. I really appreciate how even myself, like I I wasn't hitting on all cylinders right out of the gate. I was just trying to get started and get my head right with, okay, I'm doing this now. And then, you know, I had a bunch of travel and then we had some stuff going on in the family. And so while I'm doing my work, I didn't feel like Brian was overly, you know, aggressive about like, you know. Chris (34:54.188) Hey, this is where you're falling short on accountability. It was more of a, I think he's doing okay. I think he's doing good and you know, the numbers are there and the the results are there and he's showing up to the Wednesday calls and everything else. It but it was it was it the approach that you took with me is what I needed. Coach Brian Parana (35:6.087) Yeah. Coach Brian Parana (35:12.528) Yeah, definitely. I I have I feel like I've done a good job with doing that throughout the course of my career. Is I don't define success, you define it and I help you figure that out. And that's been the playbook that I have to then create a lot of success for a lot of different people and find different ways to interact, engage, tell story, create analogy, inform, educate. Coach Brian Parana (35:39.980) info tate or whatever, like all those things. Or even we had a fun challenge. Right? You you you threw out the the the baseball cap challenge and that week I think we lost about twenty pounds in the group because people were on fire and motivated to do it. So Chris (35:53.518) Hey Chris (35:56.045) Right. That's right. You know, and and I'll say this, like it it really, really feel good feels good to just old fashioned work to to get here, right? I mean, there's a a buddy of mine is really talking about peptides and he doesn't have kind of the foundational elements to to to do that. So it's like, you know, I feel like good old fashioned work is a is a is a flex, you know, and Coach Brian Parana (36:6.396) Yeah. Coach Brian Parana (36:23.658) huge flex, especially in our time. Mm-hmm. Right. Chris (36:24.750) There's a lot of choices out there. There's a lot of options out there. But you know, as far as feeling good and f knowing that you did something about the current state and the circumstances is also a driving factor. Coach Brian Parana (36:39.354) Let's just pull out the lottery on this. How many lottery winners that get instant access to results or wealth or whatever? And then they don't have it long term. And that is something that we have yet to see in the GLP one phase and the peptide phase, is a lot of people are gonna take them looking for. Coach Brian Parana (37:1.974) any sort of solution from a shortcut to vanity to I want to be h actually really healthy. Okay, cool. But we if you don't have the skill sets or the understanding on how to manage money or create wealth or create money, then you're gonna be challenged in maintaining the income of of money that you get from the lottery. And same thing with, I lost 30 pounds. Well Coach Brian Parana (37:27.494) How many other diets or routines or pills or whatever that have caused that? But we're still in a dire situation in our nation and even in the world of chronic obesity, illness, and just not living a fulfilling life because you're overweight, out of shape, ill. Chris (37:49.356) Yeah, totally agree. Totally agree. Yeah. Coach Brian Parana (37:53.382) Get the skills, people. If if you are if you have the skills, then you can do a lot with them and a lot of different things and scenarios and situations. So Chris (38:3.726) Well, good thing for you, Brian, is that you have a ton of content out there that covers a lot of these topics, a lot of the the what ifs and the I'm gonna go do it this way. And I'll be I'll be the first one to say that putting in the work and going old fashioned is the way to go. Coach Brian Parana (38:21.842) Totally. Totally. I as as appealing as it would be to win the lottery, I think I'm still gonna opt to how about I I I figure out how to make a million dollars instead of just have it show up in my bank account. it'll be more rewarding. It would be nice, it'd be helpful. But also I don't know my li in my whatever, that that doesn't go very far. I can't retire on that much money. So goodness. Chris (38:35.736) That'd be nice though. Chris (38:45.560) Yeah, right. Yeah. Exactly. Coach Brian Parana (38:49.156) I digress. So well, thank you, Chris, so much for joining us, sharing your story and help inspiring others. If you want to take action, you've been inspired by this or others in that I I shared a number of different episodes you can listen in on throughout the Driven for Health Podcast series. But jump in. The call to rise dot com. It's a hundred day fat loss challenge. You're gonna have me as your lead. There's other guys that are in there that are in the thick of it with you, pushing and motivating, inspiring each other to dig deeper and and Chris (38:51.843) Welcome. Coach Brian Parana (39:19.120) get the skills and get the knowledge and and all the things that you need to be long term successful. And that's what we're here for. Not only to lose the weight, but to keep it off in your day to day life. So that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for coming. Over and out.